UXIdeas blog

Phorm’s technology creates an anonymous profile by assigning a random number to web users – no personal details are captured. The web user’s subsequent browsing is then categorised, and these categories are used to serve up ads based on behavioural preferences.

The result is better targeted online advertising without the privacy issues.

An introduction to the service:
http://www.phorm.com/about/introducing/OIX.html

How it works:
http://www.phorm.com/about/introducing/phorm_priv_rev4.html

Phorm’s company website:
http://www.phorm.com/

Elisa del Galdo, HFI
Day 2, Internet World 2008

This was an interesting presentation, and very relevant to us as an integrated advertising agency. The premise was that it is no longer enough to ensure that a website is usable. Usability ensures that users can do what you want them to online, but tells you little about whether they will do it. This is because consumer decision making is based far more on emotional responses than rational ones – by 80% to 20%, according to some sources.

HFI has a name for the new user experience yardstick that we should be striving for: PET (persuasion, emotion and trust). Elsewhere, I’ve heard it called desirability. This is what we have to optimise to make sure that a user ‘converts’ – for example, buys a product, signs up for a newsletter, or completes a questionnaire.

Elisa gave some examples of online shopping experiences that appeal to the emotional side of decision making in an effective way. These were:

• Bluefly (http://www.bluefly.com/). Hesitate for a while on this site, and up will pop a chat dialogue with your ‘personal shopper’ at the other end. Chances are you’ll be so flattered with the personal attention that you’ll make a purchase – even one you didn’t want!

• Oxfam (http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/). The Water World section of the shop appeals to emotions in a positive way, showing the beneficial effects of your gift with smiling, happy people. The positive feeling generated makes users more likely to ‘convert’.

Elisa introduced PETscan, HFI’s methodology for evaluating online decision making. The techniques used are explained in a white paper available from HFI’s site. The trouble is, people are notoriously bad at telling you how emotions guide their purchasing, so it takes a very skilled facilitator to extract and interpret this information. PETscan takes roughly twice the time of a standard usability survey, and can only be performed on live sites. HFI realises that these factors would make PETscan an expensive luxury for some clients, so they recommend ‘PET-inspired’ activities, which can take place at any time during the development of a website or application.

The main learning for us at DLKW is that we must adapt and expand our user-centred design techniques. Incorporating user motivations into our personas and user journeys will really help. So will working closely with the design and copy teams to identify the most persuasive ways of communicating with the user. This is the beginning of an exciting journey – we’ll keep you posted!